Connecticut town holding public meeting on cyberbullying

The arrests of three high school students on sexual assault charges and the online taunting of an accuser have prompted Torrington officials to organize a community meeting on cyberbullying, statutory rape and social media.

The Bulletin

Writer

Posted Mar. 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 26, 2013 at 7:33 PM

Posted Mar. 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 26, 2013 at 7:33 PM

TORRINGTON, Conn.

The arrests of three high school students on sexual assault charges and the online taunting of an accuser have prompted Torrington officials to organize a community meeting on cyberbullying, statutory rape and social media.

Board of Education Chairman Kenneth Traub said Monday that school officials, local police and religious leaders are organizing a community forum they expect to hold in the first two weeks of April. He said additional public meetings are possible.

"I imagine that the public input section of it would be overwhelming," Traub told the Register Citizen newspaper of Torrington. "We are working with the city and the police department to put on a forum to discuss the issues at hand."

Traub's announcement came on the same day that Superintendent of Schools Cheryl Kloczko warned students that online taunting won't be tolerated and could result in discipline including suspension or expulsion.

"Please be advised that use of social media by Torrington students to disparage other Torrington students is entirely unacceptable," Kloczko wrote in a letter on the school system's website.

The arrests and subsequent social media postings have drawn some comparisons to a case in Steubenville, Ohio, that also made national headlines. In that case, two Steubenville High School football players were sentenced earlier this month to at least a year in juvenile jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a drunken 16-year-old girl, who was threatened on Twitter by the players' supporters.

Two 18-year-old Torrington High School players, Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, were charged with felony second-degree sexual assault and other crimes last month in alleged statutory rape cases involving different 13-year-old girls. Toribio also was charged two weeks ago in another second-degree sexual assault case. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A third student, an unnamed 17-year-old boy, was charged this month with second-degree sexual assault on one of the two 13-year-olds linked to the football players' cases.

The Register Citizen first revealed a week ago that at least one accuser had been the target of online taunts and reported Monday that Torrington High students have continued to use social media to support the defendants and make light of the charges.